


A Test of Tempered Steel

by FireEye



Category: Final Fantasy V
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28137417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: Getting to know your new friends doesn't always come easily.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	A Test of Tempered Steel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bookofblueroses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookofblueroses/gifts).



They circled one another, barefoot on the sun-beaten planks, each man sizing the other up. Galuf had stripped to the waist, Faris to the vest of his doublet. A faint but confident smirk touched the latter’s lips, while the former openly grinned his bravado.

The old man stopped, prompting Faris to do likewise and further raise an eyebrow. But neither at first made an opening move.

Faris made a false start, which Galuf braced himself to block.

Galuf made his own, and Faris’ fingers twitched.

Faris dropped his shoulder and drove forward. Galuf caught him, sliding back under the force of the lunge, and grappled for a more dominant hold. Faris’ fist glanced his temple, and his attempt to avoid another, more certain blow threw his balance.

The burst of violence was met with a rousing cheer. Although the spectators surrounding them were clearly on their captain’s side, Galuf’s own sheer bluster proved enough of a counterbalance for every last one of them.

Perched a mere handful of feet high enough up the ratlines for a view he didn’t have to fight for, Butz watched the match from a solitary distance.

As the fight dragged on, a discordant movement on the near side of the deck drew his eye.

Reina emerged from below deck, her pace slowing to a pause as the commotion gained her attention. Her sudden searching found Butz on the rigging, and he shot her a friendly smile. Skirting the rambunctious crowd, she strode to the foot of the shroud, and climbed up to join him. He shifted to give her space, although there was plenty enough for both of them, and followed her gaze to the scuffle.

Galuf had gotten Faris in a headlock, much to the entertainment and rising pitch of the crowd.

“What’s going on?” Reina asked, a note of concern in her voice. “Did something happen?”

Butz chuckled.

“Nah,” he assured her. “It’s just a guy thing, seeing who has the bigger pair of....”

_Ah._

Reina was a princess.

Maybe he ought to have remembered that.

She blinked at him.

He cleared his throat.

“It’s... something of a tradition,” he managed instead.

It might’ve proved unnecessary. Her attention was rapt.

Faris had managed to break Galuf’s hold, and in the clash that followed, managed to upend them both. He recovered faster, and planted his foot on Galuf’s chest, leaning forward to drape his arm over his knee with a savage grin of conquest.

Galuf shook his head clear, then grabbed Faris’ leg and shoved upward to send the pirate captain flailing backward onto his backside.

The roar of laughter that rose and rumbled on all sides suggested Faris’ men to be a fickle-hearted band of pirates indeed.

“To the depths with the lot of you,” he snarled at them. If good naturedly. He got his legs under him, rising to his feet.

Galuf managed the same; he made something of a feint of have taken it harder. But feint or not, Faris quite markedly had youth on his side, even as he rolled his own shoulders and cracked his own vertebrae back into alignment.

Galuf was given a wide berth, but a small handful of the crew clustered around Faris, with two or three going so far as to offer a pat on his back.

Reina pressed her lips together, thinly.

Then she slid down the rigging, the jostle on the lines prompting Butz to start and tighten his grip.

The pirates watched her in their midst, equal parts curious and confused, as she strolled past them and right up to Faris himself.

“Respectfully, I challenge you to a duel.”

“You... what?”

“I wish to test your mettle, and my own. Do you accept?”

Reina stared.

Faris scoffed.

“Ye ain’t serious.”

“I am.”

Faris stared at her several seconds longer. Shaking his head, he reclaimed his sword from one of his followers, leaving the man with only the scabbard, and singled out another for a second blade, which he offered, hilt first, to the princess.

Reina took it. With a heavy sigh of a woman in over her head, she glanced at the crew giving them space, and locked her gaze on Faris who positioned himself a polite distance from her.

He flourished a salute.

She did likewise.

Faris breezy confidence nearly cost him when Reina’s hitherto unknown penchant for fencing turned out to be a talent, catching him off his guard. He stepped up his game to a more serious style to accommodate, and even so she managed to pull off a technique that came dangerously close to clipping him.

If he hadn’t known just how to move, counter-wise. His riposte disarmed her, and he caught the blade that she lost. One sword held loosely in each hand, he loomed over her.

The duel was over _quickly_ , but not _easily_.

Eyes narrowing as he puzzled her out, Faris asked, “Where did ye learn that move?”

Reina raised her chin.

“Princesses have kingdoms to defend,” she pointed out. “We _are_ taught the in art of war.”

For all the good it had done.

Though Reina had, it seemed, given their commandeered ship’s captain something to consider.

Faris stared. His eyes wandered to the pendant that hung freely from her neck, if somewhat askew, then back to her face. The assertive bearing of his shoulders loosened; graciously and maybe even a touch solemnly. He handed the weapons off to the first man that stepped forward to collect them, then offered Reina a hand up and hauled her to her feet.

One of his crew hovered behind him, deferentially offering him his overcoat back. He took it without looking at the man, and slid it on with a practiced ease. His boots, he bound by their laces and slung over his shoulder.

“Tch,” he dismissed, taking his sword back as well, “What would I know about what princesses know?”

The rest of the crew found places to be and jobs to pick up the slack on. Their captain started towards his cabin.

“How... did you know the counter?” Reina wondered aloud, “May I ask?”

Neither pausing nor turning back, Faris gave her a one-shouldered shrug.

“Bein’ taught is one thing,” he through back over his shoulder, “experience be another.”

Butz landed on the deck, and the captain’s attention landed squarely on him.

“Let me guess,” Faris remarked, squaring to face him, “now _ye_ want a go.”

Blinking at the offer, Butz smiled, raising his hands in a conciliatory gesture.

“I think I’m good with not getting knocked on my ass, thanks.”

Faris snorted.

Continuing on his way, he grumbled, “At least one o’ ye got brains.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Yuletide! Please accept: some Faris being a badass in the early days via impromptu team bonding exercises between Light Warriors. :)


End file.
